Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh, who had earlier earned 15 per cent more than the highest-paid player in their respective teams for the ‘iconic’ status, are also in the same bracket as Dhoni. Harbhajan Singh is the other player in the same category.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has named around 65 Indian players in the first phase, who will go under the hammer in the auction, scheduled for January 8 and 9 next year. The BCCI has split the group in five categories of base price — Rs 1.84 crore, Rs 1.38 crore, Rs 92 lakh, Rs 46 lakh and Rs 23 lakh respectively. While the lowest base price for the inaugural IPL auction was Rs 45,73,000, the minimum for IPL-IV is Rs 23 lakh.

Sourav Ganguly, who, too, earned more for being an icon player, has been kept in the third category of Rs 92 lakh along with speedster Ishant Sharma.

According to BCCI secretary N. Srinivasan, however, players can approach the IPL governing council in case they want to be placed in some category other than specified. “A player can ask for another group within the five categories,” Srinivasan said.

Wriddhiman Saha, Manoj Tiwary, Ashok Dinda, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajit Agarkar, who have represented the Kolkata Knight Riders, are some of the players in the fourth bracket (Rs 46 lakh).

List of players up for auction:-

Andhra: Yelakka Venugopal Rao; Assam: Sridharan Sriram Baroda: Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Ambati Rayudu, Munaf Patel.

Bengal: Sourav Ganguly, Manoj Tiwary, Wriddhiman Saha, Ashok Dinda.

Delhi: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma.

Gujarat: Parthiv Patel, Siddharth Trivedi Haryana: Joginder Sharma, Amit Mishra.

Hyderabad: VVS Laxman, T Suman, Pragyan Ojha.

Jharkhand: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Saurabh Tiwary.

Karnataka: Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Manish Pandey, Abhimanyu Mithun, R Vinay Kumar, Robin Uthappa.

Kerala: S Sreesanth.

Mumbai: Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Wasim Jaffer, Abhishek Raut, Rohit Sharma, Abhishek Nayar, Ramesh Powar.

Madhya Pradesh: Naman Ojha.

Punjab: Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Manpreet Gony, VRV Singh.

Railways: Murali Kartik Rajasthan: Pankaj Singh.

Saurahstra: Ravindra Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara.

Tamil Nadu: Dinesh Karthik, S Badrinath, R Sathish, R Ashwin, M Vijay, L Balaji.

Uttar Pradesh: Mohammed Kaif, Suresh Raina, Praveen Kumar, Sudeep Tyagi, Piyush Chawla, Rudra Pratap Singh.

Vidarbha: Umesh Yadav.

The group that won the Kochi bid in March this year, paying 333 million dollars (over Rs 1500 crores) for the team, has recently seen a divide over equity and control of the franchise. This, according to the BCCI, meant that the structure of the team’s ownership was not clear.

Explaining the decision after a meeting of the IPL governing council in Nagpur, BCCI President Shashank Manohar said, “The Governing Council received replies from two parties, the Rendezvous group and the other co-owners, and they both felt that the dispute still exists. The Governing Council has invoked clause 12 (1) and given them a 30 days’ notice that in case they don’t remedy these disputes in the 30 days, the franchise would stand canceled on the 31st day .”

On being asked to differentiate the Kochi case from that of Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab – who have already been axed over ownership issues, Manohar said, “This not an intermediary breach that has been committed like in the case of Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab. So that is why they have been given 30 days’ time to remedy this.”

“According to me, the two cases are altogether different. As far as Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab are concerned, there was transfer of ownership but as far as Kochi is concerned, there is no transfer of ownership,” said Manohar.

Rajasthan Royals’ court plea challenging the termination is being heard today in the Bombay High Court.

The CEO of the Kochi group, Satyajit Gaikwad, said they had asked for 10 days and got 30, and was pretty confident that the differences will be solved. “We are very grateful for the extension…and we hope to tie up at the earliest,” said Gaikwad.

Last Sunday, the champions of the first edition of IPL – Rajasthan Royals – were debarred along with another high profile franchise from the cash-rich league on grounds of various irregularities .

“They may have written a letter but where does the question of revoking the decision come up?” BCCI president Manohar said, when contacted at his Nagpur residence. “We have taken a final decision. That remains and no further decisions will be taken in this regard.”

After the IPL governing council meeting last Sunday, Manohar had told the media that there was infringement in agreement and breach of contract on the part of the franchise that has led to the expulsion. There were discrepancies regarding the shareholding pattern and ownership transfers, which the Board claimed were not resolved.

The BCCI’s deadline asking the franchise owners to register themselves as a company is only a week away but instead of sorting out the ownership wrangle, Kochi’s owners have entangled themselves in fresh problems.

Rendezvous Sports, which has brought the consortium together to this level, has made a fresh offer to buy the whole 25% of free equity, granted to them ‘for life’ when the franchise was set up earlier in the year, but the other owners seem unconvinced. Rendezvous has the right to choose its own partners in case of a disagreement. But the BCCI is turning a deaf ear to Rendezvous’ plea to control the consortium.

Rendezvous’ argument is that they took a risk in deciding to incur all the costs leading up to the bid until they won it, a proposal agreed to by the other investors in exchange of 25% of free equity. According to a Kochi insider, Rendezvous got the equity in consideration other than cash.

The Rendezvous Sports spokesperson Satyendra Gaekwad on Saturday denied rumours of resolving of the issue between them and the other stakeholders. “Nothing has been resolved as yet,” Gaekwad said. “There is no question that we have agreed to reduce 25 per cent to 10 per cent because the BCCI showcause notice has clearly stated that we cannot diverge from the original document and the company has to be registered and monitored.”

He further said, “We have already replied to the BCCI showcause notice as far as our shares are concerned.”

Earlier, the Board had axed the Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab from the IPL and issued a notice to the Kochi franchise to resolve the ownership issue.

ED made the request to the Mumbai passport office to cease his passport after Modi allegedly refused to cooperate with its investigation into the investments made in IPL franchisees.

Modi’s lawyers, however, claimed that he was ready to cooperate and that he had already responded to the ED’s showcause notice, but was not returning to India because of security concerns. “We have submitted a reply to the show cause notice. He (Lalit Modi) is always available for questioning through video conferencing. He is not returning because the security concerns are great,” Modi’s lawyer Mahmood Abdi said. “But the request by the ED to the passport office is an extreme step and it puts somebody’s personal liberty at risk.”

On Wednesday, BCCI secretary N Srinivasan lodged criminal complaints against Modi with Chennai city police commissioner T Rajendran. Srinivasan alleged financial misappropriation to the tune of Rs 469 crores by the former chairman of the IPL. The complaints were filed as a follow-up to last month’s AGM of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The AGM had authorised Srinivasan to take the matter to the police.

The FIR comes close on the heels of Modi lashing out at Srinivasan for scrapping Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab from IPL 4.

Earlier, the ED had issued a Blue Alert for Modi’s detention over financial irregularities.

BCCI Secretary N. Srinivasan lodged the complaint against Modi citing misappropriation of funds, media rights and security issues to the tune of Rs. 470 crores. The Chennai Police Commissioner T Rajendra has informed the media that a criminal complaint has been filed against Lalit Modi.

This move comes just days after the Board took a stern step of barring two IPL teams – Rajasthan Royals and King’s XI Punjab – with eminent Lalit Modi connections.

There was also a controversy about an SMS being circulated from Srinivasan’s phone to all IPL franchises about how the Board would clip the wings of all those who will maintain their connections with Modi.

The SMS seems to have been triggered by the reaction from the owners of the IPL teams, specifically Bangalore team owner Vijay Mallya who tweeted almost immediately after the sacking of the two teams on Sunday that he wondered “if the franchisees are serious stakeholders whose investments and participation are respected, or are they slaves who only come and play”.

In response, the BCCI functionary apparently sent an SMS saying, “As we have been saying, please align yourself with us. Or everyone will get the same taste of the medicine we have given today to RR and Kxip. Owners should not think they are above the BCCI.”
The second SMS was even stricter.

“You should be happy we allow you to participate. We know how to clip your wings. President and I have decided we will run the IPL the way we want to, and after all, it’s our property. You can either be a part of it or we can find a way for you to get out. We will throw Lalit Modi and anyone attached with him. So best avoid talking to him,” the SMS read.

The BCCI, however, has denied this entire episode. Rebuffing the episode, BCCI’s chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty said, “The Board would like to clarify that no such messages have been sent from his mobile. This is clearly a case of foul play, and complaints to that effect are being lodged with the concerned mobile phone service, and the police, for immediate action.”

The announcement of Misbah’s appointment came on Friday, with the Board also retaining Shahid Afridi as captain for the One-Day Internationals and T20 matches against South Africa.

Misbah was called by the national selectors to the ODI and T20 squad announced on Thursday, since he was dropped after the T20 World Cup this year and last played a Test for Pakistan at Sydney early this year.

Earlier, former cricketers, including Asif Iqbal and Zaheer Abbas, had called for the appointment of senior batsman Younus Khan as captain for the Test series while Abdul Qadir urged the PCB to stick with Yousuf as Test captain.

“If truth, honesty and common sense had prevailed, then there would have been a punishment for the player,” Symonds said, speaking to Harsha Bhogle on ESPNcricinfo’s Opening Up. “It would have been dealt with, and it would have set a precedent for the future. But I don’t think it has done that.”

Harbhajan had an altercation with Symonds on the third day of the Test, during which he allegedly called Symonds a “monkey”. Harbhajan was handed a three-match ban, which was later overturned on appeal.

The BCCI, Symonds alleged, had flexed its muscles to get Harbhajan off, and he and his team-mates “were made to look idiots” when the ban was reversed. “I think Cricket Australia was intimidated by the Indian Cricket Board,” the Aussie player revealed.

“The thing, I think, that was grinding on me the most was the lying. Because the allegation was that this hadn’t happened, and it had. Then the lies started, and then it became political. The captain (Ricky Ponting) was made to look like a fool, and that should have never happened, and the other players too.”

Harbhajan’s appeal was presided over by Justice John Hansen, a former New Zealand High Court judge, who said there was insufficient evidence for a racism charge to stick. The offence was changed to a Level 2.8 one according to the ICC’s Code of Conduct – abuse and insult not amounting to racism – to which Harbhajan pleaded guilty and was fined 50% of his match fees. Two days later, the ICC admit the judge hadn’t been given enough material, especially on Harbhajan’s past offences, and apologised for the punishment, which many considered not severe enough for a repeat offender.

Symonds said Australia’s case wasn’t presented well. “It was really like a courtroom slugfest in the end. And I think the way our side was put across, it wasn’t as accurate as it needed to be. We probably missed a couple of points, which in the end cost our side dearly,” he said.

Symonds said he was angry at first and then completely disillusioned. He also felt humiliated because his teammates had been dragged into it. “If it had been just me, then I would have just kept going forward,” he said. “I was with these blokes day after day, and there were people still writing about it in the paper. You think about their wives, their mothers and fathers, that sort of thing. I think it was, as I said, something that was handled poorly.”

Symonds, who effectively retired from international cricket last year after his Cricket Australia contract was cancelled following a string of disciplinary breaches, said of his decision to quit, “I woke up one day and I thought, ‘You know what – this isn’t originally what I was enjoying’.”

However, the Pakistani team, who are already accused of spot-fixing in a previous Test match, are now under a new investigation by the International Cricket Council (ICC) over a suspicious scoring pattern in the Oval game.

Speaking about fresh spot-fixing allegations, Butt said there is a conspiracy to defraud Pakistan and Pakistani cricket. He also said he will soon make public the names of the person and groups involved in the conspiracy. “We will shortly reveal the names of the people, the parties and the bodies involved in this sinister conspiracy and we also reserve the right to sue them for damages,” Butt said.

The PCB chairman said that he and the ECB don’t get along any more and when he asked about the identity of the bookie who was involved, he was only told that it was an Asian bookie.

“There is loud and clear talk in the bookies circle that some English players were paid enormous amounts of money to lose the match,” he said. “No wonder there was total collapse of the English side.”

Pakistan had defeated England by 23 runs on Friday. “It is not just difficult but near impossible to stop this spot fixing thing in international matches. I don’t think our players are involved in any fixing matches,” Butt added.

He said Pakistani players and cricket had been unfairly labelled as cheats by the media.
“If this is not a conspiracy, what is? None of our players have been proven guilty. All we have are allegations and yet our players are being targeted. Our players fought hard to win the third ODI and it is astonishing to know they were told the match is under investigation now,” he said.

The International Cricket Council had launched an investigation into The Sun tabloid’s claim that the 3rd England vs Pakistan ODI was rigged by illegal betting syndicates in India and Dubai.

“Illegal bookies in India and Dubai apparently knew in advance what would happen so they could launch a betting coup. But The Sun’s undercover team was able to pass details to ICC inspectors before the match began,” the report said.

According to a report in The Sun, bookies knew details of Pakistan’s innings before the match had even begun.

Modi was suspended after IPL 3 concluded following allegations of financial irregularities in the Twenty20 league. The BCCI has set up a disciplinary committee to probe charges of irregularities by Modi, who has so far stayed away from the hearings, citing security reasons and threat to his life from the underworld.

A case will be filed for Modi’s alleged Foreign exchange violations amounting to Rs 125 crores; this amount is said to be the felicitation fee from the IPL to World Sport group.

However, Modi’s general counsel Mahmood Abdi said he was not aware of any such move and warned the Board against undertaking such a move. “I have no clue about this, and if they do it, they are doing it to deflect attention from the secretary and treasurer of the board, who are in a tight spot before the investigating agencies. By doing so, they will further erode the purpose and credibility of the disciplinary proceedings currently underway,” Abdi said.

Incidentally, it’s the first criminal case filed in a court of law since the controversy broke, that will leave Modi no option but to appear in person.